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Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

Originally Posted by Uchiha_Blood

I don't think is Hinata's "fault" that Sakura is on the background, I mean back in the Pein arc Sakura hugged Naruto 5 chapters after Hinata confessed and almost died

Imo he is simply waiting for Sasuke to give importance to Team 7, right now the spotlight is on Team 10, Hinata and Neji.
Unless she does something awesome, but I don't think anyone has any hope of it happening

I don't buy that. It's not like he's giving her a small role. He is giving her either no role or one that makes her look pathetic. I believe in coincidences...to point. We have passed that point long long looong ago.

As it is I think it has to be intentional. He wants her to either look pathetic or away from relevance. The only motive I can think of for that is in an attempt to "get her out of Hinata's way". Which I don't believe is necessary, nor wise, but it's the only motive I can think of.

Originally Posted by 3c

Sakura looks so out of place in the otherwise amazing color spread, that it looks like Kishi's editor convinced him to include her there. She's basically just placed randomly where there's room. While Sakura looks absolutely gorgeous, the spread would have looked more natural and thus better without her in it.

I really want to defend her inclusion in that cover page but....

*looks at page*

*looks at page again"

Dammit your right, she shouldn't be there. To be honest, it's not my favorite of his color spreads. I love when he includes the scroll painted look but at the same time I'd much rather he branched out a little more. I've always loved how Kubo and Oda use there color pages and an opportunity to show characters in different ways. Just show a bunch of character hanging out of something.

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

Yeah, that cover was awesome.
And Sakura looks pretty great on it (even though, like you said, she might not have her place with them).

I'm thinking (and hoping) that Sakura will have a better and bigger role in the following months, once this arc is done.

If Tsunade dies (last time we saw her she was cut in two), she basically become the best healer of the world (with Shizune, I guess).
Plus, everytime an arc is focusing on Sasuke, she gets more screentime.

Sure, last time we focused on her, Kishi pretty much destroyed her character in what he qualified as "her being more heroine-like"...
But, we can always hope that she will play a bigger/better part in the following arc, if it centers around Sasuke.

True love will conquer everythingThe question now is : which of those two loves, is the true one?!
___________________

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

Originally Posted by Jammin

I don't buy that. It's not like he's giving her a small role. He is giving her either no role or one that makes her look pathetic. I believe in coincidences...to point. We have passed that point long long looong ago.

As it is I think it has to be intentional. He wants her to either look pathetic or away from relevance. The only motive I can think of for that is in an attempt to "get her out of Hinata's way". Which I don't believe is necessary, nor wise, but it's the only motive I can think of.

I really want to defend her inclusion in that cover page but....

*looks at page*

*looks at page again"

Dammit your right, she shouldn't be there. To be honest, it's not my favorite of his color spreads. I love when he includes the scroll painted look but at the same time I'd much rather he branched out a little more. I've always loved how Kubo and Oda use there color pages and an opportunity to show characters in different ways. Just show a bunch of character hanging out of something.

Seeing them in Samurai armor seems almost normal.

Sakura's been doing the same role she's been doing for years. Out of the way, healing people, and cheerleading for Naruto. It's been this way since her victory over Sasori. Even with Chiyo's assistance Sakura gave the impression that she could function independently now, but it lasted for 1 fight.. The very next encounter with Orochimaru she slid back to her role as an accessory, not a main player and hasn't moved since. Sure, Sakura can and does make important dialogue points, but she never contributes to the action side of encounters. Ino, TenTen and Hinata are leagues ahead of her in that department. It's not her fault. Kishi made Sakura a healer and she performs her healing tasks admirably. However, the frontline of a battlefield is no place for a healer. Her occupation dictates that she be at the back of the herd, not holidng hands with Naruto. Sakura's utility as a fighter died the moment Kishi showed Saikura had an interest in healing. She was immediately tabled and her potential capped. So Sakura getting hit by a rock of pulled out of an incoming spear is just a reflection of her new reality, not neccessarily character assasination. Maybe the battlefront wasn't made for her, it's not made for a lot of people so maybe Kishi isn't mocking her character as badly as some people might think.

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

Yeah, vodoo dolls of Kishi would fetch a premium I'd wager. But Hinata isn't part of Team 7 so she shouldn't be there. Sakura is entitled and should be there. She's still the main female cast member in this story

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

Yeah, that cover was awesome.
And Sakura looks pretty great on it (even though, like you said, she might not have her place with them).

I'm thinking (and hoping) that Sakura will have a better and bigger role in the following months, once this arc is done.

If Tsunade dies (last time we saw her she was cut in two), she basically become the best healer of the world (with Shizune, I guess).
Plus, everytime an arc is focusing on Sasuke, she gets more screentime.

Sure, last time we focused on her, Kishi pretty much destroyed her character in what he qualified as "her being more heroine-like"...
But, we can always hope that she will play a bigger/better part in the following arc, if it centers around Sasuke.

I hope your right...though I'm having a harder and harder time envisioning a way for that to happen.

As sad as it is, sometimes once a things broken it can't be fixed. Sakura's character might just be one of those things.

Originally Posted by Brill

Sakura's been doing the same role she's been doing for years. Out of the way, healing people, and cheerleading for Naruto. It's been this way since her victory over Sasori. Even with Chiyo's assistance Sakura gave the impression that she could function independently now, but it lasted for 1 fight.. The very next encounter with Orochimaru she slid back to her role as an accessory, not a main player and hasn't moved since. Sure, Sakura can and does make important dialogue points, but she never contributes to the action side of encounters. Ino, TenTen and Hinata are leagues ahead of her in that department. It's not her fault. Kishi made Sakura a healer and she performs her healing tasks admirably. However, the frontline of a battlefield is no place for a healer. Her occupation dictates that she be at the back of the herd, not holidng hands with Naruto. Sakura's utility as a fighter died the moment Kishi showed Saikura had an interest in healing. She was immediately tabled and her potential capped. So Sakura getting hit by a rock of pulled out of an incoming spear is just a reflection of her new reality, not neccessarily character assasination. Maybe the battlefront wasn't made for her, it's not made for a lot of people so maybe Kishi isn't mocking her character as badly as some people might think.

I disagree.

In my view, since the beginning of part 2 on Sakura was mentored by Tsunade and her skills and role generally reflected that. It's certainly true that she was more support than anything else but she was never "incapable" of doing more; it was just smart for her stay back because that's where her skills had the most value. For one thing she often played the part of "the smart one" which is currently relegated to Shikamaru. She also was presented as an actual threat in combat, like a lower powered Tsunade. This presentation of her started at the 2nd bell test and went on until after the Kage summit. It's after that her role shifted to being entirely a helpless nurse, in a world were most of the big characters can just self heal anyway.

She has no role. That shouldn't ever happen to a "heroine" or any reasonably important character for that matter.

Originally Posted by Jessie

I honestly expected Hinata to be on that color page. Now that would have gotten the fandom talking.

I wouldn't have batted an eye. In fact in the context of this arc I would probably have been in favor of it. Since she's the love interest she needs to get as much of the spotlight as she can IMO.

Part of the reason the handling of Sakura's character annoys me so much is that it doesn't benefit "anybody". If he wants to strengthen Hinata and expand her role, I'd be all in favor of that. Going out of his way to make Sakura look like a useless Grade D shinobi with the IQ of a rotten potato doesn't help anybody or anything.

Originally Posted by Brill

Yeah, vodoo dolls of Kishi would fetch a premium I'd wager. But Hinata isn't part of Team 7 so she shouldn't be there. Sakura is entitled and should be there. She's still the main female cast member in this story

Vodoo dolls? I don't think many people are angry at Kishimoto for marginalizing Sakura. Frustrated and disappointed, absolutely. But angry, not noticeably.

I just don't understand the reasoning behind what he's done with her character since the end of the Kage summit. I mean, at least with Naruto, Obito, and Sasuke I get what he's trying to do. I think he's done a lousy job with it, but I get what he's trying to do. With Sakura no part of what he's done with her makes sense aside from him just wanting the character disliked.

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

Originally Posted by Jammin

I disagree.

In my view, since the beginning of part 2 on Sakura was mentored by Tsunade and her skills and role generally reflected that. It's certainly true that she was more support than anything else but she was never "incapable" of doing more; it was just smart for her stay back because that's where her skills had the most value. For one thing she often played the part of "the smart one" which is currently relegated to Shikamaru. She also was presented as an actual threat in combat, like a lower powered Tsunade. This presentation of her started at the 2nd bell test and went on until after the Kage summit. It's after that her role shifted to being entirely a helpless nurse, in a world were most of the big characters can just self heal anyway.

She has no role. That shouldn't ever happen to a "heroine" or any reasonably important character for that matter.

Failing to do more is synonymous with incapable of doing more. The whole healing/melee fighter persona that Kishi tried to establish with Tsunade, and later tried to emulate with Sakura never panned out. Yes, Sakura and Tsunade could blow the crap out of a wall or earth, but never seem to be able to hit a moving target. I mean if Orochimaru's head exploded when Tsunade connected with him that'd be impressive, but it didn't happen. The healing aspects of both women were solidly made, but their fighting prowess never saw the light of day. What did Tsunade do during the Pain invasion the one time she could show off her stuff as Hokage? She healed people. That was it. What did Sakura do after her victory over Sasori? She got knocked out on the bridge by failing to dodge nor was she able to do anything when they finally caught up to Sasuke. How about the hunt for Kakuzu and Hidan, nothing. The search for Sasuke when they ran into Madara, nothing. The Pain invasion, she healed but fought no one. The hunt for Sasuke, she took out her comrades with a smoke bomb but couldn't stab Sasuke when given the chance. After Sasori Sakura's only victim was an unsuspecting zetsu at point blank range. There is a pattern here. Great healer, poor fighter. That's been Sakura throughout all of Part II, this isn't something new that happened after the Kage Summit. So Sakura has only been a nurse and Naruto cheerleader for Part 2, Sakura has changed at all, only your peception of what she is.

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

She sucked as a fighter in Part I.
Its not like anybody else suddenly became an amazing fighter besides Naruto that Konoha12 anyway.
Shikamaru and Shino remained at the tier they were with just standard timeskip improvement.
In fact Neji, Lee, Kiba, Ino, Choji all of them got anticipated standard improvement its just that they got little to no screentime lol.

Her role as main heroine was scrapped back in Part I. Just the fact that she couldn't do anything other than the standard Bunshin and Transformation for basically the whole of Part I until Tsunade taught her how to revive a fish is concrete evidence Kishi stopped that idea early.
In any manga, if the heroine spends the whole of Part I not having any special move whilst all her peers has special moves then she isn't really the main heroine.

Part II began as a nice surprise til she bumped into Sasuke again sure, but then it was back to Part I again for her. Nothing special really, just on the sidelines whilst Sasuke and Naruto improve leaps and bounds.
So she let Chiyo use her as a puppet sure, it was equal effort 50/50 fans must remember that.

So considering she sucked in Part I, had a brief moment of coolness in Part II starting off and back to her lame self means in theory... At the start of Part II she was just out of character lol.

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

Originally Posted by Airgrimes

She sucked as a fighter in Part I.
Its not like anybody else suddenly became an amazing fighter besides Naruto that Konoha12 anyway.
Shikamaru and Shino remained at the tier they were with just standard timeskip improvement.
In fact Neji, Lee, Kiba, Ino, Choji all of them got anticipated standard improvement its just that they got little to no screentime lol.

Her role as main heroine was scrapped back in Part I. Just the fact that she couldn't do anything other than the standard Bunshin and Transformation for basically the whole of Part I until Tsunade taught her how to revive a fish is concrete evidence Kishi stopped that idea early.
In any manga, if the heroine spends the whole of Part I not having any special move whilst all her peers has special moves then she isn't really the main heroine.

Part II began as a nice surprise til she bumped into Sasuke again sure, but then it was back to Part I again for her. Nothing special really, just on the sidelines whilst Sasuke and Naruto improve leaps and bounds.
So she let Chiyo use her as a puppet sure, it was equal effort 50/50 fans must remember that.

So considering she sucked in Part I, had a brief moment of coolness in Part II starting off and back to her lame self means in theory... At the start of Part II she was just out of character lol.

No...just no. I have the feeling we didn't read the same manga. Yes, Sakura started as a lamo. All she thought about was her beauty and Sasuke. Fighting skills weren't nearly as important to her. Up until the Chuunin exams she was unable to do anything. Then came the part where first Naruto then Sasuke got knocked out. All by herself she needed to stand up for her comrades, fight strong enemies, use her brain and stop depending on the boys. She even sacrificed her beauty in order to protect them, in order to get stronger. Open your eyes. Development, it's right here.
Later, when Sasuke left Konoha, she needed to ask Naruto for help, as she wasn't assigned to the mission, because well, she was too weak. After the mission she realized that, which resulted in her going to Tsunade in order to get stronger so she can stop being a bother and actually support Naruto or rather fight alongside him. With the first arc of part II, she seems to have accomplished that goal of hers. Together with Chiyo she was able to defeat a member of Akatsuki! So here you go, steady development for our heroine. She's getting stronger, more independent and self-confident on the battlefield. However, Sasuke's reappearance in the manga destroyed everything. That's when Kishimoto dropped her character and turned her into a total mess.
So, even though she sucked later on, she was quite a fantastic character full of potential up until the second arc of part II.

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

Originally Posted by Googlez_kun

No...just no. I have the feeling we didn't read the same manga. Yes, Sakura started as a lamo. All she thought about was her beauty and Sasuke. Fighting skills weren't nearly as important to her. Up until the Chuunin exams she was unable to do anything. Then came the part where first Naruto then Sasuke got knocked out. All by herself she needed to stand up for her comrades, fight strong enemies, use her brain and stop depending on the boys. She even sacrificed her beauty in order to protect them, in order to get stronger. Open your eyes. Development, it's right here.
Later, when Sasuke left Konoha, she needed to ask Naruto for help, as she wasn't assigned to the mission, because well, she was too weak. After the mission she realized that, which resulted in her going to Tsunade in order to get stronger so she can stop being a bother and actually support Naruto or rather fight alongside him. With the first arc of part II, she seems to have accomplished that goal of hers. Together with Chiyo she was able to defeat a member of Akatsuki! So here you go, steady development for our heroine. She's getting stronger, more independent and self-confident on the battlefield. However, Sasuke's reappearance in the manga destroyed everything. That's when Kishimoto dropped her character and turned her into a total mess.
So, even though she sucked later on, she was quite a fantastic character full of potential up until the second arc of part II.

So I missed out the part where she protected Sasuke and Naruto.
At what point did it show she was a great fighter? She just showed guts that's awesome don't get me wrong, then there was the parts where she was just being a hindrance to the team and there are a few I can just bring up.

You haven't disproved me much. I said she sucked as a fighter throughout. She used brains but was she that successful for long?
Re-read it. Perhaps you didn't read the manga. She looked cool for a bit but Lee arrived and saved her ass.

I myself said at the start of Part II she was cool until she bumped into Sasuke so besides the part where she protected them that you corrected me on how was it worthy of "No.. just no"?
You haven't added a thing. So she realized that she was being useless and decided to learn Medic jutsu at the end of Part I, that's all cool but that was at the end of Part I, like the very end. And til Part II where she meets Sasuke again which is fairly early when you think about it and she becomes lame again.
She wasn't cool for long. Count the chapters from the Medic nin learning right through til she meets Sasuke again.
Those chapters are serious minority in comparison to the rest of the manga.

In between protecting Sasuke and Naruto in the Forest to After the Leaf 5 VS Sound 5 mission there are several points that can be picked out where she was a hindrance and was useless.

So to say that from then right through til she met Sasuke in Part II she was such a fantastic character is just a bit fan-opinionated.
You're not really correct at all if you're going to ignore the down moments she had between that.

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

She's the healer... her only role is to be the healer.
So, when Naruto needs to be healed, Kishi still decide to have Hinata heal him instead of Sakura!?!!

And again, she was nowhere to be seen in this chapter...
She's the only Konoha12 that wasn't seen in this chapter!

This is becoming really weird...
Maybe she's dead, but no one noticed and we will only find out after the war...

Since Sasuke has reached his destination, he will meet Naruto in this soon. Sakura will be relevant again. Gotta give the other members a chance to shine because after the war they will be irrelevant again.

Re: The Official Haruno Sakura thread

I saw the episode of this week of Naruto, the episode 311, the one that contains the prologue to Road to Ninja.
I really liked it, obiviously the best part has been the fanservice of Hinata, but even more how much Sakura feels humiliated by her, because Hinata’s breast are very huge while Sakura chest is very small, it is like that of a kid.
But in the truth a thing even more ironic is that right now the difference in the breast is the less difference that there is between Hinata and Sakura.

Infact since after Pain arc Sakura began to worsen, infact excluding the moment in which she discover the Zetzu clone (even if in the truth that happened only for a mistake of Zetzu) and when she warned the group of Zabuza’s style of fighting http://www.mangareader.net/naruto/522/8, she became useless, or sometime even a burden.
Infact first ot all she not only was not able to kill Sasuke, (even in the truth I think than that is acceptable, althought even if she appeared to be stupid only for the fact that she tried it, it was obvious that she could not do that), but her kunai has poisoned Naruto (it was made as a joke, but if Sasuke or Madara would have remained that would have became a serious issue).
Another thing is when she was saved by Naruto when she was attacked by the Zetzu (even Hinata was saved by Naruto, but she was in a battlefight while Sakura was not, she was the one that despite the orders that she received let them pass).
As if this was not enough Sakura to dodge the spears of wood She needed the help of Kakashi http://www.mangareader.net/naruto/614/9.

In the truth the worst thing of Sakura is the fake confession.
Infact I really liked how Sakura behavior throught Naruto changed, at the beginning she hated him (to tell you the truth I can understand her, with his prank Naruto was really a nuisance), but then she slowly began to appreciate him, for example in the second trial of chunin exam she even said to Sasuke that Naruto even if he had several defects, at least he was not a coward.
But the best part was when at the beginning of the shippuuden she against Sasori wanted to achieve informations on Orochimaru, because there was the possibility to take back Sasuke, and he wanted to do that for Naruto, not for herself.
But the best thing was when she tried to stop Naruto, when he was in 4 tail’s mode, and she did it without thinking about her safety.

However her fake confession ruined all these things, because she did that without counting Naruto’s feeling, she wanted to tricked him.
At least for me not even if she will die saving Naruto will be enough for me to forgive her.
Infact the only way that I would forgive her is if before of the ending of the manga we will see that just like said Sai, she did that because she wanted that Naruto would have moved from her, because she wanted that he would stop to love her and that then he would have chosen Hinata.

This is possible because knowing how much Naruto wanted to be accepted I think that He at least would have ask something to Hinata, for example when she began to love him.
Then probably not seen by her, I think that all the Konoha’s rookie spied them.
I think this from what Kiba said here http://www.mangareader.net/naruto/611/14, infact I think that Kiba knew that Naruto loved Sakura, so for this reason I don’t think that he would have said it if he did not thought that something between them happened, infact I don’t think than what happened only in the chapter 559 would be enough for make him say that.